Tuesday, 8 June 2010

The Loveliness

Posted by Tania Kindersley.

The sky is the colour of old doves and the rain has been falling sulkily all day. It should be demoralising, and yet somehow it is not. With each drop it seems that the green things look greener, from moment to moment, as if drinking it all up in gratitude. I sometimes feel insanely lucky to live in this temperate climate, so that I do not have to look out over arid wastes. Also, my melancholy northern streak, no doubt inherited from my possibly made-up Danish blood, rather likes a bit of dreich. I find blazing sunshine slightly vulgar and unsettling.

And how could I feel anything but delighted when I come round the corner and find the younger niece, in her special vintage fur hat? You will be glad to hear that even in June there is enough of a chill in the air to call for serious headgear:

How did she get so grown-up? It seems like only yesterday that she was six years old and I was making her listen to Frank Sinatra singing One for my Baby so that she would grow up knowing there was more to music than boy bands.

Just regard the loveliness:

It makes me think of Julie Christie in Darling.

And in case you thought the delight ended there:

Don't they look absurdly elegant in sepia? (The intense staring eyes are because I have just said the word 'rabbits'.)

And, out in the good old Scottish rain, here is the bravest of the peonies, very slowly starting to unfurl its sodden petals:

On top of which, I managed to bash out 1300 words, some of which will survive into the final draft. My older brother is up from the south, and has already driven out at seven in the morning to go to Glenn Muick before there was another person in it:

(Photograph by Nigel Corby.)

I had a long conversation with my dear old mum about the astonishingly talented Workforce winning The Derby in record time:

(Photograph by Getty Images.)

So even though I have not been sleeping well, and I am ravaged with doubt about this whole new book, and I fret about the pelicans, I think that this adds up to A Good Day. When I am feeling a bit cornball and folksy, I say to myself: never take a good day for granted. It's sort of goofy, but it's true.

Tania, I look forward to reading your posts so much. I love dogs too. Almost 10 years ago my daughter went to the shelter in Houston and found 2 beautiful female black labs, sisters. Of course, they came home with her...she named them Duchess & Zoe. Duchess is a complete lady in every way, while Zoe is a Tasmanian devil dog. How did she know to name them so well? I have a Maltese male called Bono, because he's a rock star, and a female poodle named FiFi, of course. Dogs Rule! That's my mantra. The peonies will be lovely, Mother Nature knows how to do this. sending love, Marsha

Splenderosa - special Scottish woofs from my canines to Bono and Fifi. You will be pleased to hear that my sister has a poodle too. She is a little black Scottish creature, and runs wild through the woods, barking at the pigeons.

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